Presidential Preferences

Barack Obama Will Be Spending the Long Weekend Watching Game of Thrones and True Detective

At this point, it kind of feels like we know more about President Obama’s television-watching habits than our own. The commander-in-chief has talked many a time about his love of shows like Homeland (“You’re a finer actress than I am president,” he told Claire Danes), Breaking Bad, and The Wire. You might think a guy with a stressful life like his might prefer the likes of New Girl or Orange Is the New Black, but, nope, the man likes his bleak, intense hour-long dramas.

And The New York Timesis reporting that at the state dinner for President François Hollande of France on Tuesday night, Obama “made a point of approaching” HBO’s C.E.O. Richard Plepler and accosting him in the manner of an impatient Internet commenter, asking, “Where is my True Detective and Game of Thrones?” Per the Times, Obama then told Plepler that “the coming weekend would be a good time to have the DVDs,” as he is due to arrive at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, tomorrow for the three-day weekend. If there’s anyone in the world who could gain access to the next season of Game of Thrones before it bows in April, it would surely be Obama, so it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that he seems to have gotten his wish: “After his conversation, Mr. Obama waved over one of his aides to make sure that Mr. Plepler knew where to send the DVDs to ensure they would make it through White House security and end up in the president’s hands.” (This reporter’s observational prowess would clearly make Zoe Barnes proud.)

Speaking of Zoe and her friends, we know Netflix has gone on record saying they will not move up the release date of the second season of House of Cards, but we are patiently waiting for Obama to order them to do so by presidential decree so that those of us homebound due to this gnarly weather can spend the day with Frank and Claire Underwood.